Reviews

TV

Official Synopsis: Arrow (Stephen Amell) offers to train Roy (Colton Haynes) so he can learn to control his newfound super-strength. However, Roy is a rebellious student and refuses to listen unless Arrow reveals his true identity, which Oliver refuses to do. Meanwhile, the Bronze Tiger (guest star Michael Jai White) escapes from prison and steals Malcolm’s earthquake machine to sell to the highest bidder. Oliver, Diggle (David Ramsey) and Felicity (Emily Bett Rickards) attempt to stop the transfer, but Roy gets in the way, putting everyone in danger. Laurel (Katie Cassidy) is disbarred and spirals out of control. Moira (Susanna Thompson) is thrilled when Walter (guest star Colin Salmon) asks her to dinner, but his reason surprises her. Thea (Willa Holland) encourages her mother to ask Walter to reconcile. Guy Bee directed the episode written by Marc Guggenheim & Drew Z. Greenberg (#212).
This could have been an amazing episode, but it falls flat. Bronze Tiger returns only to get knocked down faster than a weeble-wobble. Roy finally becomes Oliver's sidekick with terrifying results, but spends most of the episode playing Ralph Macchio in Karate Kid. Olivier's Mom wanders around deciding to run for mayor. Laurel wanders around whining about losing her job. Back on the island Oliver wanders around looking for Slade. Diggle stands around doing absolutely nothing again. Skip this one.

Movies

Official Synopsis: Set in the near future, an ex-jewel thief (Frank Langella) receives a gift from his son (James Marsden): a robot butler programmed to look after him. But soon the two companions try their luck as a heist team.
This independent film is delightful in it's exploration of a wonderful character and it's themes of loss and redemption. Langella plays Frank as a cantankerous old man suffering from memory loss who's fighting every step of the way to live independently. The great thing about the film is his robot (which he never does name) is a sounding board for his unfulfilled dreams of returning to his life of crime. Robot also reflects his fears of losing his memories forever. The plot is engaging, the characters are powerful and there's a twist near the end that blew my mind.

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comments:

I watched "Robot and Frank" a week or two ago and I also really liked it. Then a few days later I watched "The Twelve Chairs" starring a much younger Frank Langella, which was a little weird.

I'm almost done with the first season of "Arrow" so I probably shouldn't read your summaries or else it'll just spoil everything. Really while I like the show I think a problem highlighted in your review is that it seems like there's too much going on with all these different characters and their different stories. It's not going to help that they seem to want to bring in every DC universe character to the show to set up a spinoff.

Hiddleston was born to be Loki. They made a good choice in giving Thor to Helmsworth.

The Falcon does seem conspicuous by his absence. I guess Cap, Fury, and Widow have previous appearances in the Marvel movies and they're banking that the familiarity warrants the posters. So Falc might have to wait for Cap 3 for his own (which I totally heard they've already started working on).

The Girl of Steel fan film is nice. I felt it was a bit mean-spirited of her to kung fu fight with the MIB guys though. She's clearly just giving them false hope by knocking them down over and over. It gives them a false sense that they might be able to fight back.

And I haven't been watching Arrow, and I have been meaning to watch Robot and Frank, I just haven't gotten around to it.

The chart is still way too small to read even enlarged. Hiddleston looks a lot like Jared Leto when he has blond locks. I will read the Shakespeare Wars at some point. Black Widow looks to have been babed up in her next appearance. Or possibly just for her next poster.

Too true Rusty. He has a thin face and wicked smaile that fit perfectly. Sure he could play Thor if he bulked up, but the casting director made the right call. I did a follow-up post to the Capt America thing, so I'd like to hear your thoughts on it. LOL I never noticed that till you pointed it out Rusty. "I learned here that there can be no true despair without hope." Either one is worth watching (last episode not withstanding.) :)